Interactive Local Media: 07 – Next week in Los Angeles

I should have noted this before, but the Kelsey Group is hosting another of their useful conferences on local media and local search in Los Angeles next week. Titled ILM:07 (Interactive Local Media) the conference in being held November 28 -30 at the Hyatt Regency in Century Plaza, Los Angeles. You can find the agenda here.

If your are: interested in how the players in the industry think they will make money in local media, need the meet the movers and shakers in this segment, or want a in-depth, up-to-date overview of who is doing what in local media, this is the meeting for you. The Kelsey conferences are known for the generous amount of time they allot for networking. I have found the networking breaks to be very useful. Although the Kelsey Group obviously cannot offer guarantees, it has been my experience that the speakers hang-around for the networking sessions and are very generous with their time.

There are important sessions scheduled each day of the conference and the readers of Exploring Local who are interested in mapping and local search, might be especially attracted to a session on Thursday afternoon titled “Maps: They’re not just for driving anymore”. The session is being presented by the Search Engine Strategies Group and is focused on making money by using maps in online local advertising. Also of interest, John Hanke, Director of Google Earth and Google Maps will be presenting one of the keynotes during the Friday morning session. He is scheduled to discuss his thoughts on Google’s local initiatives.

The integration of mapping in local, however, is just part of the attraction of this conference. For example, the introductory session of the conference is titled “Local Search: Why Your Business Needs be There and How” and features speakers from ReachLocal, Localeze, Google, Zvents and Topix. Also, there are sessions on local mobile and “Injecting Social into Local Media”.

My schedule has been kind of wacky lately, but I hope to spend some time at ILM and will blog about it here.

Also, I hope to finalize the second installment of my UGC series later today (especially since Google now lets users “correct” the location of address markers on maps). Also, I will write a short note on the Most Elusive Christmas Gifts of 2007 – The TomTom 920T and 920.

I hope that those of you in the U.S. had a satisfying and relaxing Thanksgiving Holiday.